Charon rode into the steam made by the river of fire and the river of ice meeting in the marsh. “There’s the shore. I’m not picking up any souls right now,” he said, answering my unspoken question. “Though with you in here, they may come a bit more willingly.”

~@~

Acheron was either the son of  Helios and Gaea or Helios or Demeter. Prior to being a river, he was a minor god who made the mistake of providing the Titans with drinks during the Titanomachy. Zeus turned him into the river/lake of pain and sent him to the Underworld, where he became its principal river. Ascalaphus (the god who tricked Persephone into eating pomegranates) was, in some versions of mythology, his son.